Need for speed

I know, I know, I know. I've been absent since March. Truth is, I haven't had much exciting to write about in the way of running. It's been a lot of the same old, same old. Going to the gym in the morning before work and that's about it. Not much to write about really.

One thing I have been doing during those quick trips to the gym is working on speed. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, when I was working toward a 5K. In the past few weeks I've been doing even more speed work. I convinced Jenna to run the Medtronic TC 1-mile with me. I figured it would be a good exposure to racing for her and she could definitely handle a mile. Turns out she more than handled it. More on that later.

Anyway, I've been wanting to get my mile time down low. Now, low for me is under 8 minutes considering I haven't run a single mile since my days with Coach Greeno in high school. Now, my time back then was probably around 7 minutes. Probably just over. I can't remember exactly. Oh how I wish it could be that again but alas, it is not...yet.

To work on short-distance speed (yes a mile is short distance) in my 3 workouts a week, I did speed work on Monday and Friday and longer "recovery" work on Wednesday. Mondays and Fridays consisted of a 5 minute warm up which usually ended up being about a half mile long. After the warm up I cranked the treadmill up and did a full mile at whatever pace I chose that day. Each day I chose a faster speed than the last. Usually about 2 tenths of a mile faster. Then, I'd typically crank it up again for the last 10th of a mile. By the time I ran my last speed workout prior to the race on Thursday, I had a 7:35 mile time. I thought that was pretty good and was excited to test it out at the TC 1-mile on Thursday, May 17.

Unfortunately, Thursday's weather was not all that favorable for running a race. It was 80+ degrees and the winds were sustained at over 20 miles per hour and gusting even more. The best part is that they were straight up headwinds. Not OK. As soon as I stepped over the start line, I knew it was going to be a difficult run. The buildings in downtown Minneapolis created one heck of a wind tunnel, a la the windy city of Chicago if you've ever experienced that. This run was a straight shot down Nicollet Mall. There wasn't much relief in terms of terrain so I guess that was good. That headwind though was the killer. My mouth instantly dried out when we started, and I'm pretty sure my entire respiratory system shriveled up, straight down to the poor little alveoli in my lungs. Breathing was a little challenging.

From this pre-race picture, you wouldn't know that the weather was not ideal for running. Also, don't laugh at my farmer's tan. I was at a wine tasting with my mom and sisters last weekend. It was outside and I didn't wear sunscreen.

Now the great thing about Nicollet Mall is that there are a lot of bars/restaurants toward the south end of the street. Most of them are situated in the last half of the course. This means that all of the normal patrons, plus the racers that finished in the earlier waves were sitting out on the restaurant patios having drinks or eating dinner. It provided instant cheer zones. Coming into the finish line was pretty exciting with all of these people around.

I ended up finishing with a time of 8:10. Pretty crappy for me. I was and still am pretty disappointed with that time considering I wanted to be under 8 minutes. Jenna finished not far behind me in 9:00 flat. That was actually a huge time for her. She'd been running her miles in over 9 minutes during training so something must have bit her in the ass and got her to move despite the weather. I wish it would have jumped 50 seconds ahead and bit me too.

Post-race, Jenna and I both experienced some serious wheezing and coughing. I have never had coughing this bad after a race. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. As we walked the mile back to the start line and our car, we passed a lot of people who had also just finished the race and were wheezing and coughing like mad too. Weirdest thing I've ever experienced. The cough lasted through Friday. I happened to be on one of the Minnesota running group's Facebook page on Friday and saw a post from someone else who ran the race. It said, "Is anyone else still coughing from last night?" And the entire string of responses was in the affirmative. I was really happy to see it wasn't just me and the symptoms were definitely caused by that wind. Chances are, the drying effect of the wind itself, plus the fact that it undoubtedly kicked up a ton of dust and allergens that we sucked into our lungs are what contributed to the smoker's cough we endured.

Overall, I'm happy I did that race. It was a good change-up from the longer distances, even the 5K's that I'd been doing. The best part is that a random 1000 of the 2500 finishers get guaranteed entry into the Twin Cities 10 mile on October 7. A race that I want to do but is entered by lottery. I'm hoping I'm one of those lucky 1000! Why wouldn't I want to run a 10-mile race on my birthday?

In June I start training for the 10 mile and half marathon I'll be doing in October. I'd like to throw in a 5K or 10K race in June or early July just to track some progress. I haven't been able to find any good ones though so we'll see if that happens.

Lastly, I am incredibly thankful that I did not sign up for a full marathon this fall. I had been a little regretful until I opened up my email on Wednesday. I found out that I was accepted into the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management MBA program for the fall. Between my full time job which will get CRAZY in September and October and starting the MBA program the week after Labor Day, I don't think I would have had time for those long training runs. I just don't know how I'd do it. Maybe next year when I've gotten a year of MBA training and my first year of fall events under my belt, it'll be easier. Here's hoping because I'd really like to take on Chicago.

Hopefully I'll have more to write about in the coming weeks. I'm planning to head outside for my runs now. There's really no excuse considering the weather. Also, my schedule at work will be changing into summer hours. We work an extra hour on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so we can have a half day Friday. This means I'm tacking my  hour onto the beginning of the day so early morning trips to the gym might not be as feasible. Stay tuned for more...